Recently, among my many e-mails, I was particularly struck by the wisdom
contained in one, author unknown. Whether a true story or not, its
philosophies remind me of the those I hold to myself — and ones we would
all do well to consider in making life’s difficult decisions, especially when it
comes to change. I’ve edited the story a bit;but, the message remains.
The story goes … On the first day of college, our professor challenged us to
get to know someone new. I stood up to find a wrinkled, little old lady
beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being. She said, “Hi. My
name is Rose, and I’m eighty-seven years old.” Curious, I asked her what
motivated her to take on this challenge at her age. “I always dreamed of
having a college education and now I’m getting one!” she told me. We
became instant friends; and, I was always mesmerized listening to this “time
machine” as she shared her wisdom and experience with me. Over the
course of the year, Rose became a campus icon, easily making friends
wherever she went; and, at the end of the semester, we invited Rose to
speak at our sports banquet. As she began to deliver her prepared speech,
she dropped her three by five cards on the floor. Frustrated and a little
embarrassed, she simply said, “I’ll never get my speech back in order, so let
me just tell you what I know.” She cleared her throat and began, “We do not
stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.
There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving
success. You have to laugh and find humor in every day. You’ve got to have
a dream, because when you lose your dreams, you die. We have so many
people walking around who are dead and don’t even know it! There is a huge
difference between growing older and growing up. If you are nineteen years
old and lie in bed for one full year and don’t do one productive thing, you will
simply turn twenty. Anybody can grow older.
